


first impressions aren't always right

by thequietcanadian



Series: Team STRQ Week 2020 [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Day 1:First Impressions, Ficlet, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Short One Shot, Team STRQ week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:28:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28373157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thequietcanadian/pseuds/thequietcanadian
Summary: team STRQ's first impressions of each other
Series: Team STRQ Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2077959
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	first impressions aren't always right

**Author's Note:**

> so this is just some self indulgent fluff honestly (We'll the first part at least) to start off team STRQ week. I Hope you enjoy and please leave a comment if you have time!

When they first start sharing a room Summer cannot stand her partner. Qrow is snarky and sarcastic. Takes nothing seriously and rarely if ever follows her orders and all that’s fine. Summer knows that he hides under the snark and sarcasm to keep everyone away, almost as a defense mechanism for what ends Summer doesn’t know. She knows that trust is earned and as long as Qrow doesn’t end up harming them while disobeying an order than she doesn’t care that he does it. None of this is what bothers her, however. It’s the constant pacing in the middle of the night.

At first Summer chalked it up to being in a unfamiliar environment, the twins had grown up on the edges of society, sleeping under the stars and living in the forests. Surviving, more than just living. But he doesn’t stop. Every night almost like clockwork Qrow slips out of his bed, floor boards creaking under his weight for a moment before he seems to try and step on the ones that will make the least amount of noise. It doesn’t help. A creak as Qrow paces in front of Ravens bed, pause. Swivel and he’s striding the other way, a loud groan from the wood as he passes by Tai’s bed. A squeak as he passes her own.

It drives Summers nerves up the wall, years at the combat schools has trained her to wake at the slightest of sounds. Every creak and squeak and groan from the floors has her wide awake and alert. Eyes shooting open to see if there is a threat but there is only Qrow. Raven and Tai don’t seem to notice. Raven sleeps soundly in her own bed covers pulled up over her head. Tai seems unaffected as well as he drools into his pillow, mumbling ever once and awhile before turning.

On the few occasions Summer has tried and stopped Qrow, he gives her a sheepish look, cheeks flaming red in the soft moon light as he apologizes a soft.

“Sorry did I wake you?” the only words to pass his lips, before he retreats back to his bed, returning to prowling the minute he thinks she’s asleep. Its infuriating and she doesn’t know how to tell Qrow to stop without sounding like an ass, especially since it had been going on for weeks now.

It isn’t until their first mission alone, a simple recon that Summer finds the reasoning too it. They’re on the outskirts of a small community just outside Vale. Deciding to wait till morning to approach and seek information. It means a night in the woods, a night where the grim could come for them. So, Summer sets watches for the team. Qrow would go first, in the hopes he would sleep afterwards instead of keeping up his nightly habits. Afterwards Raven, herself and then Tai.

The group agrees easily and Summer is almost surprised by the little resistance that her partner gives, but counts it as a blessing. The fire lulls her to a light sleep. It is several hours later that Summer wakes, back stiff from laying on the ground, she checks her scroll to see the time and bolts up. She was supposed to be on watch twenty minutes ago, why hadn’t Raven woken her? She gets up scowl on her face as she surveys the area. Raven lay where she had when they’d gone to sleep. She sees Qrow on the outskirts of their encampment scouring the area. From where she stands, she can see the slump of exhaustion in his shoulders and when he turns she sees the tiredness in his eyes.

“Qrow” Qrow shifts nervously at her even tone, eyes darting to the darkness around them.

“Why are you still on watch” Qrow won’t look at her and his hand rubs against his arm as he hunches into himself.

“Rae… usually falls asleep on her watch… so… I usually pick up the slack” Summer hummed in acknowledgment they’d have to correct that later because it could mean they’d end up dead if they couldn’t rely on her. It still didn’t make sense why he wouldn’t wake her up though.

“I get that, but it was my turn nearly half an hour ago Qrow” Qrow shrugs, kicking the dirt in front of him.

“Figured you could use the sleep more than me… I’m used to being tired” Summer doesn’t know why that makes her heart ache painfully, but she takes a step closer.

“well, I can take over for now” Qrow shakes his head and summer pauses.

“is there a reason you don’t want to sleep Qrow?” Summer can see his walls come up, can see the smirk come on his face like a mask to hide his fear.

“Of course, not short stack, just not tired” Any other time Summer would have fumed at the nickname, put instead she frowned at his deflection.

“I’m your partner you know… you can trust me, its just the two of us here” Summer watches the panic flit across his face before its gone.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” Summer smiles sadly at him, resting a hand on his shoulder.

“you don’t have to tell me why if you don’t want to, but it might help” Summer watches as Qrow deflates, chewing on his lip indecisively as his cheeks go red. He mumbles something that Summer can’t quite hear, and as gently as she can she asks him to repeat himself.

“I get nightmares and they attract the Grimm, so I just sleep less” Summer takes that in before pulling her partner into a hug.

“is that why you pace every night?” She feels Qrow nod into her shoulder.

“Thank you for trusting me with this”

Summer is not annoyed when she’s woken by the squeaky floorboards anymore. Instead of laying there she gets up, turns on the T.V. they have and turns the volume down real low, she gathers the blankets from their beds, makes some chamomile tea and leads her partner to the plush carpet. Sometimes they are up for hours and other only a few minutes, but each time Qrow falls asleep on her shoulder, relaxed and content, nightmares forgotten for the night.

Qrow doesn’t understand why there’s so many fucking flowers in their dorm. It hadn’t bothered him at first but its began to make him nauseous the floral scent over powering every time they step into the room.

He knows their Tai’s, but he doesn’t understand why so many chicks would send them to a random first year. Qrow says as much there first week living together, but Tai just gives him a smirk.

“Some of us are just lucky silly bird” the comment leaves Qrow fuming for the day, the mirror in the bathroom cracking twice before Raven gives him a look and he leaves to cool off. Since than Qrow hasn’t bothered asking. He knows he’s going to need to soon though because it won’t take much more for him to end up just straight hurling the moment he steps into the room. He gets the chance when Raven and Summer are off studying, Tai had opted to stay and read his comic books and Qrow had already written and colour coated his notes and was just adding some finishing touches. So they’d been left alone.

There’s a knock at the door and Qrow doesn’t think anything of it until he catches a whiff flowers and his back goes ridged. A comment is on the tip of his tongue, as he looks up, but he sees tears in Tai’s eyes and the words die on his tongue. Qrow watches as an older woman enters the room. She has short brown hair the roots just starting to turn gray or maybe she dyes it Qrow isn’t sure. There’s crows feet by her bright blue eyes, her expression soft.

“Grams?” Qrow hears Tai say hesitantly. He dares not move in case he ruins whatever’s going on.

“Hi my sunflower” Tai’s in her arms in a instant, flowers nearly crushed if it weren’t for the women’s quick reflexes.

“What are you doing here?” The women looks at him sadly, raising his chin up so he’s looking at her.

“I thought you could use a pick me up Sunflower, after all” The women seems to choke up for a moment, eyes watering. She doesn’t finish her sentence instead she smiles sadly at him

“They’d be so proud of you Sunflower” Tai sobs in the women’s arms and Qrow shifts uncomfortably, he wasn’t good with people being emotional. The women glanced over at him and Qrow froze.

“Who’s this Sunflower?”

“My teammate. Qrow” The women smiles at him a twinkle of mischief in her eyes.

“This is the pretty one, right? With the cool weapon?” Qrow feels his face heat up at the complement as Tai splutters, a smirk comes to Qrow’s face.

“I’m the pretty one?” Tai doesn’t look at him as he corrals his grandmother out of the room, Qrow cackling as the door shuts. It is two days later that Qrow asks the question he’s been curious about since that encounter. He looks around the room inspecting for the first time the flowers that decorate as many surfaces as they can. He notices two things one there is only two colors. The first being purple in nearly every shade from the pale purple of the sky to the deep purple of wine. The other is a pale blue, nothing darker or lighter always the same shade. The second is that none of the flowers appear wilted in fact Qrow thinks Tai refreshes them long before even a single petal is out of place. Summer and Raven are passed out on their beds. Tai is laying on his stomach Scroll poised in the air, while Qrow sits in front of the television the sound of buttons mashing stopping as he pauses his game.

“How long have they been gone?” Qrow knows he knows what he means and with the growing silence he expects him not to answer, but after a moment he does.

“bout four years ago… their was an attack on Patch and well duty called” Qrow nods his head even though his teammate can’t see it.

“I… still miss em and being here… it makes it hard sometimes, when Grams came the other day… it was the anniversary” Qrow can hear his uneven breathing and glances over at his sister and Summer, it wouldn’t be fair to Tai if they woke up now and saw him like this.

“Ma’s favorite colour was purple any shade she didn’t care, and Pa’s was blue but very specifically delphinium’s, it’s how I keep them around” Qrow knows he can be a ass but he’s not heartless and asking Tai to give this up definitely falls into that category. So instead, he throughs on a teasing tone turning just slightly to see Tai’s reaction.

“So... I’m the pretty one?” a pillow thumps against his head as grin coming to his face.

“I think your all very pretty Qrow.” The next evening there is a fresh set of flowers in a vase right by Tai’s desk sitting precariously on his books. Within are several purple and blue flowers, and in the middle, there is a single sunflower. Qrow doesn’t miss the smile that lights up Tai’s face as he sees them.

Raven doesn’t like Summer from the start. She’s too cheerful, to excited, a whirlwind. Too much all at once. She brings it up to Qrow once and he gives her an odd look, like he doesn’t understand, which doesn’t make sense to her. Qrow always understands, always agrees with her. As time goes on, she realizes why.

The bright smiles Summer sends him, the late nights gaming. The concern she shows when he’s injured. Summer shows Qrow a level of care that Raven’s never bothered with, could never give him. Her brother soaks it up, his sarcasm less cutting, his snark less hurtful. Raven hates it, they were supposed to be strong warriors for their tribe and softness of any kind would get them killed.

Raven tries to remind her brother of this, but his shoulders hunch defensively, and he argues, argues! With her of all people. Says that Summer isn’t that bad if she’d just get to know her or Tai. Raven snarls at him at that. Their mission wasn’t to make friends it was to learn huntsman secrets, so they’d be able to kill them faster. Qrow doesn’t speak with her for days afterwards and she gets the sinking feeling that she is losing her brother somehow. She knows its Summers fault and she knows how to fix it.

They’d been stuck inside that day, the snow and sleet from the storm cancelling classes. Tai and Summer had been arguing over what movies to play and Raven could tell without looking up that Qrow was playing off his own annoyance. Laying on the bed with his arm over his eyes just waiting for the two to pick something. One of them had kicked the side of a table, but Raven knew it was enough. The vase was sent flying to the ground shattering on impact as several more tipped over water going everywhere. The two stared at the mess for a moment and Raven knew now would be the perfect time to strike. So, with a smirk she turned to her brother, his eyes pleading with her not to say anything she paid it no heed. She sighed dramatically gaining the attention of their roommates.

“Oh Qrow what a mess you’ve made” the pair stared at her curiously, as Qrow sat up blanket wrapped around him protectively.

“I kicked the bedside table Rae not Qrow” Summer said, and Raven couldn’t help wicked grin that came to her face seeing her brothers dismay.

“I’m aware Summer, but you see with my brothers semblance its unsurprising it went that way” Qrow’s face paled, eyes pleading with her one last time, but she was having none of it. She would get her brother back from Summer.

“His semblance is misfortune, he can’t even control it, appears at the worst of times but I guess that makes sense” Raven doesn’t understand why the words feel like acid on her tongue, doesn’t understand why the satisfaction of the revelation doesn’t leave her giddy. The two stand their in shock at the revelation but Qrow is across the room and out the door not even bothering to throw on a pair of shoes. The door slams shut, the noise bringing both of them back to the present. Tai scowls at her as petals fly through out the room as Summer follows after Qrow.

“What” she snaps as Tai’s gaze bores into her. Its unsettling making her skin crawl, but more importantly it makes the feeling in her stomach all the more apparent.

“Just because your jealous of Sum doesn’t mean you had the right to do that” Raven’s vision goes red. She is jealous of no one and never will be. Summer is nothing but a nuisance and the sooner Qrow realizes that the better. She’s about to tell Tai just that but he beats her too it.

“no, not jealous, scared because you have to share”

“I fear nothing!” Raven shouted eyes blazing as she glared at her teammate, yet the feeling she had in the pit of her stomach knew his words were true. It had always just been her and Qrow nobody had wanted them, had used them for their fighting abilities. Now though Summer had showed such care for them and it was frightening. Care meant that it would hurt more at her betrayal and Raven did not wish to see that hurt on her brother face, not when it was something she couldn’t fix.

Summer and Qrow come back hours later and Raven stands, a comment on the tip of her tongue, never an apology because she is sorry for nothing. She lifts a hand to reach for her brother and he walks by ignoring her completely. It stings in a way that she did not expect it too. Summer evaluates her a moment before she grabs her wrist and pulls her out the door. Petals swirl around them and Raven feels nauseous as they speed down the hall and into a courtyard. Summer gives her a second to catch her breath.

“I know you don’t like me” Raven grunts in response at least she didn’t have to explain it to the idiot.

“I don’t care about that, but what you did today was uncalled for”

“I did what needed to be done” Summer crosses her arms and Raven tries to ignore the guilt that courses through her at the action.

“I don’t know how making your brother feel like less than benefits you in anyway” Raven huffs rolling her eyes, it fixed everything.

“you know now. You can have Tai as a partner and I can have my brother, since you don’t want him as one anymore” Summers brows knit in confusion.

“why wouldn’t I want him as my partner over that” Raven stares at her a moment trying to detect some form of deceit and finds none, only honesty.

“its not his fault, that’s his semblance, besides” Summer gives her a wicked smile silver eyes twinkling in the moonlight.

“I think I can work with it” Summer leaves her there, white petals falling to the ground as Raven ponders her words. Raven did not like Summer to begin with, but she thinks she can tolerate her… for her brothers sake.

Tai didn’t have an issue with his teammates. He’d known Summer since he was little both of them spending most of their time on the beaches back in Patch. He’d been there when his parents died, when he’d broken his arm, when he’d figured out his semblance. So, he feels kind of guilty that he’s jealous at Qrow for taking up some of her time.

He knows its unfair, that it isn’t his fault that Raven is so prickly and difficult to start a conversation with. It doesn’t mean he mises his best friend any less. Besides Qrow and Summer were partners they needed to get to know each other so that they could guard each other’s backs when they fought. He just wished Raven had the same mind set.

Instead of working with him to improve their combos, she seemed to do the opposite and it was infuriating because yeah, he had decent aura levels but it still fucking hurt when he took a hit…maybe he did have an issue with his teammate. If he brought it up though he didn’t think Raven would, particularly care. After the stunt she’d pulled with Qrow only a week ago he was starting to wonder if she had any emotions outside of anger. Qrow still seemed to be recovering form the verbal attack she’d done to him too. He still flinched when something bad happened apologizes flooding out of him and it took reassurance from both Tai and Summer before he seemed to settle again.

He wondered if this team would work. If Raven was constantly instigating shit than he wasn’t so sure and Tai thought that if they did get split up it might be better for Qrow to be as far away from his sister as possible. Under Summers friendship Qrow seemed to pull out of the gloom that seemed to follow him the first week they’d all roomed together.

“Taiyang” Tai looked up from his scroll, Raven standing in front of him, arms crossed. She didn’t look pissed off, so that was a good sign.

“Raven what can I do for you?” Her eyes narrowed and Tai got the sneaking suspicion she was evaluating him.

“We should train” Tai’s eyebrow raised in surprise. Raven had been against it since the moment Tai had met her, in fact she actively avoided it unlike Qrow. So, for her to be asking was odd.

“Sure” It took only a moment for him to grab his weapons and follow her out. It was a disaster from the moment they stepped into the training grounds. She’d gone straight for the pair rooms instead of singles meaning she didn’t want to go one versus one oh no. Instead, they faced off against the room itself, it updating every time one of them did something new. Which wasn’t often the way they were going. Tai would go in close to block or hit and Raven would be there a second later just slightly ahead of him. He’d hit or be unprepared for the next attack. Every mistake seemed to set her on edge that eventually exploded into anger.

“Could you be something other than a colossal waste of space” Tai’s own temper flared, he’d had enough of this bullshit.

“You ever think its your fault? News flash Raven I don’t exactly know what your going to do, at least I project my actions!” Tai glared his semblance barely being contained as he tried to rein it in.  
“You do that on purpose?”

“Of course, I do it on purpose! If I’d fought with you before I wouldn’t need to, but we haven’t!” Raven looks at him, considering his words Tai supposes.

“Qrow doesn’t it usually means he’s in a tight spot he can’t get out of so I cover him” Oh. That made sense and thinking back on it every time Raven had stepped in was usually when he was over projecting.

“okay. Well now that I know that why don’t we try this again?” Raven nodded. It went infinitely better after that, it wasn’t perfect they still had some kinks to work out, but Tai wasn’t taking hits he shouldn’t be, and Raven wasn’t wasting energy on protecting him.

“your not bad” Raven said after they’d finished for the day and Tai couldn’t help but laugh. Maybe this would work out after all.


End file.
